BIG SUR, California (KRON/CNN) — A massive landslide at Big Sur has shut down a large portion of Highway 1.
Residents and business owners say they are starting to feel the effects of the road closure.
Earlier this year, damage to the Pfeiffer Bridge shut down the highway. Now, this is another hit.
The slide is preventing customers and residents from the area–and from their stores once again.
Business owners are trying to find a way to keep afloat during the closure.
“You just heard a loud roar, and we didn’t know what it was until Caltrans came and told us the whole Mud Creek Mountain came down,” Ragged Point Inn Manager Rori Cosma said.
Cosma is a manager at the Ragged Point Inn. That’s about 10 miles south of the massive Mud Creek landslide.
“We have a serious problem,” Cosma said. “Before, the big problem was the Pfeiffer Bridge, and now, everyone is saying the hard part is the Mud Creek Mountain. They gotta go back to the drawing board and figure out what they’re going to do, leaving all the businesses up there cut off, and the residents.”
Caltrans says it is too early to know when the highway will reopen to traffic
“A third of the mountain just went down, and it’s created a new shoreline, and its millions of cubic yards, down,” Caltrans spokeswoman Susana Cruz said.
Caltrans plans to break down a temporary closure on Highway 1 at Ragged Point and establish a hard closure about 10 miles up the highway right before the Mud Creek slide.
“It came as a surprise that this is as far as we can go right now,” tourist Dawn Ritz said.
Ritz is among those who came to the Big Sur coastline as part of her holiday weekend escape from Los Angeles.
“This is a very pure part of California that is an opportunity to really get in touch with the basics of life,” Ritz said.
Cosma wants everyone to know the Ragged Point Inn is open for business.
“The numbers are going to be down no matter what,” Cosma said. “People just aren’t coming to the area at all knowing that they cannot access this iconic highway.”WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON:
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